Charged particle beam devices have many functions, in a plurality of industrial fields, including, but not limited to, electron beam inspection, critical dimension (CD) measurements of semiconductor devices during manufacturing, defect review (DR) of semiconductor devices during manufacturing, exposure systems for lithography, detecting devices and testing systems. Thus, there is a high demand for structuring, testing and inspecting specimens within the micrometer and nanometer scale. Micrometer and nanometer scale process control, inspection or structuring can be done with charged particle beams, e.g. electron beams, which are generated and focused in charged particle beam devices, such as electron microscopes. Charged particle beams offer superior spatial resolution compared to, for example, photon beams due to their short wavelengths.
Imaging of 3D structure, such as V-NAND devices, FinFets and deep vias has been paid attention to. In the imaging of 3D structures, a high resolution and a high throughput of the charged particle beam device are beneficial. As an example, the resolution can be affected by aberrations introduced in the charged particle beam by the optical system of the charged particle beam device. Further, in CD measurements it can be beneficial to measure all three dimensions.
In view of the above, new methods of reducing aberrations such as coma and chromatic aberration in a charged particle beam device and charged particle beam devices that overcome at least some of the problems in the art are beneficial. In particular, methods and charged particle beam devices providing an improved resolution and an increased throughput are beneficial.